[Leps-l] Hesperiinae: video of unknown structure / behavior
je...@mineralmovies.com
I was filming a Peck’s skipper the other day, (Polites peckius) and saw something that I had never seen before: some large black bristles jumped into place when the (male) butterfly opened its wings. You can see the video here:
The butterfly was perching for quite a long time before this. I did not seen any female nearby.
I’m assuming this is some sort of hair-pencil, or male scent scales. Does anyone know anything about these in Hesperiinae? Can you point me to any references as to their function? Does anyone know if some or all of the Hesperiinae have these structures? I have seen something about hair-pencils on the tibia of some male skippers, but these scales seem to be from between the fore and hind wings.
Would love to learn more!
Jeff Fast
rc...@nyc.rr.com
I checked the male skipper shots from my book pictures (BF of the East Coast) and saw that most spread males have similar ‘hair-pencils.’ As near as I could tell from a quick review (most pix don’t show point of connection, they seem to emanate from the leading edge of the HW (but hard to say, could be from the body nearby). So this isn’t an aberration.
Rick
Charles Covell
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